Another reason explaining how the jewfish got its name?

[archman]

Hey, there's a 600-lb giant sea bass in Catalina waters named after me... "Dr. Bill."

This is my new goal. I want my students or co-workers to name some big critter after me. My natural preference would be for a sea turtle, but savvy visitors would just assume its named after Archie Carr, Grand Old Man of sea turtle conservation. Dang.

I'll settle for a big orange sponge. "Archie's Sponge", I like the sound of that.

 

[nereas]

That's right, and the biggest baddest Philistine of them all? Goliath!

I Samuel 17:4 A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. He was over nine feet tall. 5 He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels ; 6 on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. 7 His spear shaft was like a weaver's rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels. His shield bearer went ahead of him. 8 Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, "Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. 9 If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us." 10 Then the Philistine said, "This day I defy the ranks of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other." 11 On hearing the Philistine's words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified. NIV

So, in the name of political correctness, they renamed the noble Jew Fish the Goliath Grouper. Go figure!

I got to see a bunch of these huge fishes in the Florida outer keys, more than anywhere else. They are truly beautiful fish, and indeed goliaths! The D/M speared one, and it tasted really good as well, when grilled by the excellent cook on the boat.

It is such an appropriate name. I hope it catches on too. On our boat, however, they were not aware of this change yet. And therefore I was continually under the apprehensions of a Mosad raid and being caught in the crossfire.

 

[drbill]

I lived there and left no legacy whatsoever.

Oh, how wrong you are, my dear Catherine. They still talk about your antics at the Chi Chi and Marlin Clubs!

 

[Cacia]

:11:

...most of it was Jan, not ME.

we used to steal paintings from establishments and hang them in other restaurants. Evlis on velvet--those ones. Finally the guy at Villa Portafino got kinda mad. Chi Chi--talk about a *not so* PC name, wonder who they named that place after? maybe we should call it the ***-*** club.

I think I'll name the Christmas Tree worm after Archman. Of course, we would have to make up a big story though.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Whatever the origin of the name, the renaming of it was downright STOOPID! Why on earth did they have to name it after the Jew's worst enemy in the Old Testament? THAT was the most bone head move this century! That it was done in the guise of being politically correct makes the slight especially egregious!

Yeah as long as they leave the official name of our little wrasse as Slippery Dick, they could have left jewfish alone.

Slippery dick - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[ReefGuy]

Actually, that would be the People's Front for Judeah (or the Popular Front for Judeah).

SPLITTERS!

But I thought the Jews' worst enemy in the Old Testament was the Philistines?

 

[robandliza]

They were nowhere near as bad as the Judaean People's Front or Judaean Popular Front

Of course, all of their badness pales into insignificance when compared to Judaean People's Popular Front!!!!

 

[knotical]

I have never heard this argument before. I even checked into Scubaboard's own *lengthy* thread on this back in 2004.
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/marine-life-ecosystems/63185-how-did-jewfish-get-its-name.html

Thanks archman, I hadn’t seen that old thread before. Dr. Stein’s post is priceless.

I found still another version (guess) of the origin at: State: Big fish get a giant name

Yet another theory is that it was called "jawfish" for its huge mouth, and that later became "jewfish" through Southern accents and colloquialisms.

 

[tedj01]

Knotical,

I had heard the jawfish version before as well, but the version I heard was from our snowbird friends trying to either emulate speaking Cracker & missing the pronunciation or misinterpreting a Cracker word. To me this seems like a very logical version. I have seen similar occurances when watching other people trying to communicate with some Cajuns. Or, in the Caribbean, when watching people from different islands speaking patois and then reverting to English to interpret terminology and pronunciation.

 

[Hank49]

This is my new goal. I want my students or co-workers to name some big critter after me. My natural preference would be for a sea turtle, but savvy visitors would just assume its named after Archie Carr, Grand Old Man of sea turtle conservation. Dang.

I'll settle for a big orange sponge. "Archie's Sponge", I like the sound of that.

Well since there aren't likely to be any new turtle species show up, how about having a verb in your name? Instead of "killing" a lion fish, we could "archman" it.